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Mulryan, Brown complete 35-year odyssey with Conti translation

May 09, 2007 |

The labors of half a life have finally borne fruit for professors Dr. John Mulryan and Dr. Steven Brown with the publication of Natale Conti's “Mythologiae,” the first complete, fully annotated English translation of the most important mythography published during the Renaissance.

Conti's huge work — more than 1,000 pages in the original texts — appeared in 27 editions during the 16th and 17th centuries and was the most popular handbook of myth for the entire period.

Conti provides a comprehensive coverage of the vast range of Greek and Roman myth, and subjects each myth to a tripartite analysis of its historical, "scientific," and ethical foundations. Translated into idiomatic English from the Frankfurt 1581 edition, the text is immediately accessible to scholars, students, and the general public.

Mulryan’s and Brown’s 1,024-page translation was 35 years in the making.

“First-rate scholarship takes time, lots of time,” Mulryan said. “But it is for the ages, not for today or tomorrow.”

Mulryan (English) and Brown (Classics), professors at SBU since the 1960s, collaborated on the translation not long after Mulryan began working on the book in 1971. Various hurdles along the way slowed down a project Mulryan thought would take five years to complete.

“It probably took three times as long for us to translate it as it did for Conti to write it,” Mulryan said.